Chapter 6. Further Building in the Nineteenth Century

Chapter 6. The Twentieth Century to the present

In the years before World War II, there were a number of houses built on the road from the village to Belle Vue (1930s), and the eight houses at Belle Vue built as Council Houses (1921), since sold off as private residences.
Then in the 1950s several more were built along Papcastle Road from the Gote and some on the Back Lane.
The sheltered housing accommodation of Castle Gardens, with 16 properties plus wardens accommodation had arrived in 1963.
The mansion which was The Mount, , was sold to Thomas Armstrongs (builders) in 1957. In the early 1960s, the house was demolished and a new estate, The Mount, commenced. Its first occupants moved in early in 1966; eventually there were 47 houses and later, two privately developed bungalows. Dont look for number 37 however, since the surveyors laying out the estate plainly got their measurements wrong and there was insufficient space for No. 37. The space intended for its back garden was sold off to neighbours for a song.
The Mount estate was marketed as an “executive” estate although it was a far cry from that title further south in the country. Nevertheless it filled with many professionals such as head teachers, senior engineers and managers, bank managers, and individual businessmen. This trend also extended to the older part of the village so that dentists, doctors, hospital senior staff, veterinary surgeons, solicitors together with a significant number of retired people of comfortable means gave the village a non-typical social mix.
In 1974, Derwent Lodge was in use as a care home for the County Councils Social Services with 19 residents.
After this period, the local authority (Allerdale Borough Council) had to produce a Southern Allerdale Local plan. In doing so it established a policy of tightly drawn village limits for communities such as Papcastle which is regarded as special with a significant conservation area. Building in the village is therefore limited to in-fill, not outwards extension and there have been many such in-fill buildings.
By 1974, there was a total of 153 residences (excluding the outlying ones nearer to Bridekirk and Dovenby, and the old station appeared not to have been rescued at this time). The adult population was 350 no information about children but from recollections, there were a fair number.
By 1990, there were 175 residences (again excluding the outliers). These held 356 electors. There were very few unoccupied properties so it appeared that the second-home fashion had not yet taken hold.
There is again no information about numbers of children but the feel of the village was very much that of a retired community with children in short supply.
There is no access to the occupations at this later stage but personal knowledge indicates a preponderance of people of professional standing, and retirees of similar standing (at least 58 households or 33%). By 2008, the village had increasingly become the haunt of doctors and dentists with no fewer than nine households, some having both husband and wife, in these fields, so totalling 13 people, as well as two veterinary surgeons.
Interestingly in the early days of the Mount, it had felt much like a transit camp as people were often posted elsewhere by their companies. Yet a rough check of the electoral registers shows 32 properties still occupied by the same family in 2008, albeit a widow or widower. Of those here in 1990, there are still 68 the same (39%)

Summary of later building phasesNot in chronological order of building

1919-1939

1945-1965

1966 -1995

1995 –

Braehead

The Hawthorns

The whole of the Mount

Derventio Cottage

Hillrae

Grasmoor

Fairway

Quintana

Woodlea

Burtonwood

Bradstone

Craiginvar

Warwick House*

Old Orchard

Belle Mount

Ditton Lodge

Orchard Garth

The Crofts

West Wind Cottage

Garthlea

Belle Vue (8)

Cornerstones

Salmon Lodge

Cordova
(now Mill Knock)

Manor Court

Fellbarrow

Avalon

Castle Gardens

Silverstones

Cedar Lodge (previously Bourne House)

There are in addition several conversions of outbuildings.

* According to a photograph in the collection deposited by Bernard Bradbury in Cumbria Record Office, Whitehaven, the extension on the front of Warwick House was built with stones from Cockermouth Old Hall, demolished in 1973.